Scouting, Statistics, and St. Louis

The relevance is that NHL teams have realized that the key to drafting is below the junior level. This is in sync with the old sponsorship days where teams would sign players, at times before their 16th birthday - Bobby Orr was 14. A 17/18 year old drafted out of the CHL either goes back to junior or wastes time in the NHL. A 17/18 year old drafted out of school, Midget AAA or the USHL, Jr A gives the drafting NHL team more developmental flexibility and time.

The key to modern NHL scouting is the early identification of viable players and tracking them for seasons before their year of NHL Entry Draft eligibility. Significant change from a generation ago.

Fair enough, thanks. What does that have to do with having finite resources to apply to Iain's methodologies?

If he had more resources, the method would get even better than it already is - that's pretty obvious.

The relevance is that NHL teams have realized that the key to drafting is below the junior level. This is in sync with the old sponsorship days where teams would sign players, at times before their 16th birthday - Bobby Orr was 14. A 17/18 year old drafted out of the CHL either goes back to junior or wastes time in the NHL. A 17/18 year old drafted out of school, Midget AAA or the USHL, Jr A gives the drafting NHL team more developmental flexibility and time.

Changes to scouting priorities are not terribly relevant, because the purpose of the Projectinator is not to duplicate scouting. In fact, in some sense it's the very opposite of that. It's another opinion on the future projection of the player, based on how he's producing right now. It's not intended as a replacement for scouting, but a complement to it. I've made that clear enough.

Teams using such a system can still consider development flexibility and time. The analysis projects his future based on what he's actually accomplished at the level he's actually playing at. That's an input to the draft decision, just like the team's particular developmental focus.

Fair enough, thanks. What does that have to do with having finite resources to apply to Iain's methodologies?

If he had more resources, the method would get even better than it already is - that's pretty obvious.

You're welcome.

Juggling act between finite resources and wasting resources is always present. The trick is optimizing resources. Easy to say in the abstract but I do not know enough about Iain's situation to offer concrete alternatives.

Juggling act between finite resources and wasting resources is always present. The trick is optimizing resources. Easy to say in the abstract but I do not know enough about Iain's situation to offer concrete alternatives.

I've been fairly specific about this already. This is a hobby for me. Any NHL team pursuing this line would be able to devote far more than 2 or 3 man-hours per week on it.

That's been a large part of my point. One guy poking away at it when he has time has produced some pretty good results. Devoting actual resources to it should produce significantly better results.

I've been fairly specific about this already. This is a hobby for me. Any NHL team pursuing this line would be able to devote far more than 2 or 3 man-hours per week on it.

That's been a large part of my point. One guy poking away at it when he has time has produced some pretty good results. Devoting actual resources to it should produce significantly better results.

Thank you for the clarifications.

The question remaining concerns your next stage objectives.

As mentioned previously there are trends to scouting the pre junior or alternative to CHL levels.

The maritimes are under scouted in terms of school hockey, midget AAA and Jr A. The prevailing attitude is that the players may be observed when they tour outside the region either in season or the summer tournament circuit in central Canada or the north eastern USA.

Collecting the appropriate data would allow you to contra it for interesting data from other regions. Common and popular way of building a data bank.